2015 Archive Stories Education

If you’re looking for a career with a restaurant, hotel, bed-and-breakfast inn, catering operation or commercial kitchen, you might want to enroll at Chaffey College.
San Bernardino County’s largest community college has a hospitality program that awards associate degrees or certificates in a couple of related fields: hotel m

It’s not a mirage. College of the Desert’s vocational offerings reflect the Coachella Valley’s sun-splashed economy.
At the Palm Desert-based community college, a student can learn how to manage a golf course. Or how to manage the turf at a golf course, a hotel or five-star resort.
“We are in the land of g

It’s guaranteed.Under a program in its third year, students who complete certain associate degrees at community colleges and apply to California State University are promised admission.“You don’t necessarily get to go to the one of your first choice,” said Paul Feist, vice chancellor for communicat

Faculty members at San Bernardino Valley and Crafton Hills colleges say they want San Bernardino Community College District Chancellor Bruce Baron removed from his post.Academic senates on both campuses are proceeding with no-confidence votes on Baron’s leadership. Meetings were held Wednesday on each campus to read the first d

At $46 per unit, the price is right for Jeremy Lopez.The 30-year-old Upland man said he is the first in his family to go to college. But at first he didn’t know what to study.His friends didn’t either. They went to universities. They stayed longer than expected – spending more than they planned – a

A veteran and a newbie to the state competition represented San Bernardino and Riverside counties respectively this weekend at the 34th annual California Mock Trial Finals.
The teams from Redlands and Hemet high schools were among the estimated 750 students from 36 counties to participate in the three-day event at the Historic Riverside

Sculptors, painters, artists of all mediums ... don’t miss your chance to enter your winning piece to the 53rd annual Riverside County High School Art Show. Entry forms are due Monday, March 23 before midnight. Students in grades 9-12, enrolled in Riverside County high schools during the 2014-15 school year, are eligible. On

Every student in Deborah Parr’s credit recovery class has a story to tell.“When my dad died, I just didn’t care,” said Ramona High School senior Francheska Lewis, who lost her father in 2011 after a four-year battle with cancer.“I ditched school,” she said. “I failed every class m

Most Inland school districts aren’t giving out preliminary layoff notices this year, continuing a trend from last year that saw a better climate for education funding in California.
Officials in the Riverside, Corona-Norco, Moreno Valley, Jurupa, San Bernardino City, Murrieta, Perris Union, Lake Elsinore, Yucaipa-Calimesa and San J

The state is suspending, and may eliminate soon, the most common way that parents and the public look at school test scores.
On Wednesday, the California Board of Education voted to suspend the Academic Performance Index, or API, a composite score that crunches down several test scores for each public school. There was no dissent.

To the Vatican, Father Junipero Serra is a great evangelist who spread the Catholic faith through California’s Indian communities.
To many Native Americans, the 18th-century priest represents Spanish colonial domination and abuse of Indians that led to thousands of deaths and devastated native culture.
A UC Riverside confer

CNN is planning a new series hosted by UC Riverside creative-writing professor, religious scholar and best-selling author Reza Aslan.
“Believer” is the tentative title of the “spiritual adventure series” that is scheduled to debut next year, the network said.
“In each episode, Aslan will immerse hims

Proposed attendance boundary changes that would affect enrollment at a dozen schools in the Lake Elsinore Unified School District are scheduled for the governing board’s consideration Thursday.
A committee formed a couple of years ago to study the district’s school boundaries recommends realignments that would affect enrollme

Seven employees have been selected as 2015 Riverside County educators of the year. They recently found out about the awards by getting surprise visits in their classrooms, offices and workplaces. The honorees are Audrey Smith, a secretary at Heritage High School in the Perris Union High School District; Richard Davis Jr., assista

The Riverside County Children & Families Commission, also known as First 5 Riverside, will host three public forums starting Friday, March 20, to help create its next strategic plan. The early childhood development organization is hosting forums in Palm Desert, Riverside and Menifee so advocates, parents, teachers, providers and commu

When allegations that a Corona teacher molested a student surfaced last week, parents had lots of questions but got few answers.
School officials didn’t give parents the educator’s gender or name, specify the alleged crime or report that police made an arrest. Corona-Norco Unified School District administrators said they coul

Hemet High School earned its first championship title in the 32nd annual Riverside County Mock Trial Competition on Saturday, March 7.
By defeating Riverside’s Martin Luther King High School, Hemet is advancing to the state competition, which will take place March 20 to 22 in Riverside.
The final round for the county title

Travis Roy’s bedroom isn’t just a shrine kept in his memory. Ten years after the Murrieta middle school student collapsed from sudden cardiac arrest and later died, it’s also the place where his father seeks inspiration and solace. The place where he goes to talk to his son. The place where h

Teenagers Jarita Bustamante, Kyra Ayala and Catalina “Cat” Romero didn’t expect wild applause when they finished signing “Scrambled Eggs Super!” by Dr. Seuss for an audience of elementary school students at the California School for the Deaf, Riverside.
And they didn’t get any.
But if the wavin

It’s time to pick a school.
Deadlines are approaching in many districts for parents to apply for the public schools their children will attend in the fall. And while neighborhood schools typically accept students who live in their boundaries, outside campuses usually honor requests if they have room.
Parents of soon-to-be k

Uh oh, what is that burly-looking guy with the dark shades and all those tattoos up to? I see him wandering around the Foothill Elementary School campus in Corona, no doubt looking for trouble.
Call security?
Maybe not. In a way Damian Taylor, 40, is security and, in fact, is looking for trouble. His son, Lincoln, is a second-gra

Geneva Oaks, dean of the School of Nursing at California Baptist University, has good news and bad news about health care in Riverside County.
The bad news: the county is not a particularly healthy place to live. In fact, it has a higher mortality rate for almost all common causes of death than other counties in the state.
The go

Four Inland school districts must prove they are teaching elementary school physical education as required by state law, under terms of a tentative lawsuit settlement.
A 2013 suit accused 37 school districts throughout California of failing to provide at least 200 minutes of P.E. each 10 days of school, as mandated by the state.

Faculty at Crafton Hills College voted Wednesday afternoon to join their colleagues at San Bernardino Valley College and initiate a no-confidence vote on the leadership of the college district's chancellor, Bruce Baron.
Valley College voted Feb. 18 to start the process of taking such a vote. The actual polling is expected to take place i

In 2013, six out of every 10 high school graduates in Riverside County applied for financial aid.
Riverside County Office of Education officials want more than nine out 10 to fill out the forms.
The office’s initiative Race to Submit asks all high schools to push seniors to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student